Telangana declares 231 mandals drought-hit

November 25, 2015 12:00 am | Updated November 26, 2015 12:41 pm IST - HYDERABAD:

The Telangana Government on Tuesday declared 231 out of 443 rural mandals in the State as drought-affected and sought an immediate assistance of Rs.1,000 crore from the Centre for taking up relief measures.

The decision was taken after a review meeting conducted by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar with Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, Chief Secretary Rajiv Sharma, Principal Secretaries B.R. Meena (Revenue) and S. Narsing Rao (CMO). A report was also sent to the Centre.

Acting on the recommendations prepared by District Collectors based on the guidelines for declaring drought, the State Government has declared all the mandals in Mahabubnagar (64), Medak (46) and Nizamabad (36) districts as drought-hit. However, none of the mandals in Adilabad (52) and Khammam (41) districts made it to the list as the areas recorded good rainfall and the condition of crops was comparably good.

Other mandals declared as drought-hit include 33 out of 37 in Ranga Reddy, 19 of 57 in Karimnagar, 22 of 59 in Nalgonda, and 11 of 51 in Warangal. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar, who spoke to newspersons in the TRS office later, stated that the Agriculture Minister would visit Delhi soon with a detailed report on the impact of drought in the State and request visit of Central teams to the affected areas. He stated that nine-hour power supply in single spell would be made to the agriculture sector from April-May next and all categories of consumers would get uninterrupted power supply from 2018. The Opposition parties have been blaming the State Government for delaying the declaration of drought mandals and seeking help from the Centre. However, sources in the Disaster Management Department stated that whenever they had approached the Centre the stock reply they had received was to send a detailed report following the guidelines in place for declaration of drought. They were unable to fathom the rationale in the Centre accepting some States’ proposals on drought-hit areas and declaring assistance as reported in the media when the guidelines would be same for all, the sources said.

Rs.1,000 crore sought from the Centre for relief measures

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